The German torpedo boats S59 and S60 sunk the ex-Latvian steamer (now in Soviet colors)not far off of the Gotland coast. The Wartburg mining efforts were successful as they caused the Soviet navy to take heavy losses in the early days of the war.Īlthough the Kriegsmarine had started its minelaying campaign in the Baltics a few days before Barbarossa, the first official naval action between the Germans and the Soviets took place at 0345 hours,22 June 1941. In addition to establishing these minefields, Helsinki became a German forward-area naval base. The primary purpose of these minefields was to prevent the Soviet Baltic Sea Fleet from attacking the vital German-Swedish commerce routes. Specifically, the Germans laid three minefields in proximity to German waters – Wartburg I minefield off of the coast of Klaipeda(Memel), Wartburg II minefield between Karlskrona, Sweden, and Klaipeda(Memel), and Wartburg III minefield off of the Gotland coast close to Swedish waters. Germany began the Baltic Sea campaign by laying a number of minefields just prior to and right after 21 June 1941. The German submarine bases named Krefeld and Seeburg were established in Saaristomerre, Finland. And all former Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian merchant, and navy ships.2nd Destroyer Division: Storozhevoy, Stoiky, Silnoy, and Sereditoy.1st Destroyer Division: Gnevnoy, Grodnoy, Grozhjashtshy, Smetlivoy, and Steregushtshy.Destroyers: Artyom, Engels, Jakov Sverdlov, Kalinin, Karl Marx, and Volodarsky.Destroyers (flotilla leaders): Leningrad and Minsk.Battleships: Marat and Oktyabraskaya Revolustiya.Opposing them were the following Soviet forces: Naval Group “D”: Minesweeper group “Cobra”, 1st Torpedoboat flotilla (S26, 39, 40, 101, 102, and 103)5th Torpedoboat flotilla (S27, 28, 29, 45 and 47), Half of the 5th minesweeper flotilla (R56, 57, 58, 60,61 and 62), Base ships Carl Peters and Tsingtao, 3rd Finnish coastal patrol flotilla (V304-308 and V310-314), Ilmarinen, Väinämöinen, Hämeenmaa, Karjala, Turunmaa and Uusimaa, 3submarines and some lesser ships.Submarine chasers: 11th Submarine chaser flotilla, 11th, and 12th Räumbooteflotilla.Sperrbrecher group: 6th, 8th, and 138th.
Minesweeper group Nord: 5th, 15th, 17th, 18th, and 31st Sweeper Flotillas.Minesweeper group: Grille, Preussen, Skagerrak and Versailles.Submarines: 22nd U-Bootflotilla, Korvettenkapitän Ambrosius commanding (U140, 142, 144, 145, and 149).Battleships: Schlesien and Schleswig-Holstein (they did not participate in any attacks though).Marinekommando Nord under the command of Admiral Claasen and headquartered in Kiel had the following forces at its disposal for Operation Barbarossa: The German navy started and ended the naval war in the Baltic Sea supporting the German Army to meets its operational objectives. This operation, the last of the once-mighty Kriegsmarine, would be the largest sea-rescue operation in history. In the end, in the Spring of 1945, the German Kriegsmarine under Großadmiral Karl Dönitz was able to evacuate nearly 2.5 million Baltic and German civilians and soldiers from Baltic shores to safety in northern Germany despite vigorous attempts by the Soviets to prevent just that from happening. In that year, not one Soviet ship or submarine made it past the anti-submarine net the Finns and the Germans had erected from Helsinki to Tallinn. The most successful year for the Germans in the Baltic Sea was 1943. For most of the Second World War, the Baltic Sea was a virtual German lake. The German naval campaign in the Baltic Sea was one of Germany’s most successful military efforts of the entire Second World War.
0 kommentar(er)
